[TCMUG] Geodata Portal - Natural Resources Canada Followup...

[Lime, Steve D (DNR)]

Hi all: I contacted some folks with the GeoConnections program in NR Canada about their process. Here's the 10 cent tour from Brian McLeod, CGDI Standards and Architecture Coordinator with GeoConnections :


"As Tom mentions, we went thru a two stage process to assess and procure the potential technologies for use in the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure.



The first stage was an Request for Information on geoportals in general. Anyone was free to respond, and we received several responses to specific criteria that we put in the RFI (fairly broad). We used the OGC Geospatial Portal reference architecture (http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/dp) as one of the background documents for the RFI.



All who responded to the RFI were invited to give presentations and demonstrations on whatever geoportal technologies they were supporting.



Following the RFI, a process was done to create an RFP that combined some of the technical knowledge obtained from the RFI with user/business requirements from our stakeholders. After this an RFP was released and Compusult was the successful bidder.



Our procurement was only for technology, however we did build in a number of operational requirements (like performance metrics) that the technology was to support. Government staff are the operators of the geoportal, and provide end-user support. A number of our requirements related to configurability of the geoportal so we would not be reliant on the contractor if we required changes modifications to the user interface, controlled vocabularies, and other components of the application. Note that the RFP did not prescribe a COTS or Open Source solution, as either would have been acceptable.


I agree with your concern that implementation costs/resources are typically underestimated, or not properly accounted for in geoportal technology procurement. In Canada, mostly thru the GeoConnections program that supports our national spatial data infrastructure we have seen evidence of several major geoportal projects that rise and fall due to the inability of the receptor organization to sustain and maintain the technology and associated user/business processes required to operate the technology. I don't have anything specific that could be shared, but feel free to contact me if you want to discuss this issue further."

A formal RFI process might not be a bad idea in this case. It sounds kinda what folks have been going though in an informal manner to date.  I've asked Brian if we could see the RFI and RFP solicitation documents. I figure those would be good validation documents at the very least.

Steve
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